Top Local SEO Questions and Answers That you Should Know

Do you have any ideal of some Top Local SEO Questions? Local SEO is now the main marketing strategy for small businesses who want to have a more online exposure and traffic for their site.

Optimising a site for Local SEO would require drastic changes to be made and every business owner must be ready for this. With that in mind, it’s important that they know not only the important facts regarding Local SEO but also the questions revolving around it including their appropriate answers.

Listing all of the questions would take a long time so I’ll just be listing down the most commonly asked ones.

Top Local SEO Questions

Can you rank in a city that your business isn’t in?

Local SEO is used so that your business ranks up in local search queries made with regards to the local address of your business. That means you won’t be able to rank your business for queries that are targeted in other cities. And there’s no point in doing so too. Why would you want to rank up your business in City A when it’s located in City B in the first place?

How does the position of search keywords affect the rankings? Like this for example – (business niche) (address) vs (address) (business niche)

Only Google knows the right answer for that but in according to specialists, the positioning of the words has indeed something to do with how the results are going to show up and how their sites are opted to that keyword. If they have opted for the address more than their business niche, then they would rank up better with the (address) (business niche) keyword phrase than the other one.

Is it alright to have two businesses located in one city? How will I rank up for both?.

Of course. All you have to do is to rank up for both of those businesses. You need to separately create listings for both which can be a bit tiring, but Yext and BrightLocal can easily help you with that. You also have to make sure that your searchers will be redirected to the right page when searching for a certain branch of your business.

What happens with my reviews on Google+ Local if I move places?

It can get quite complicated when that happens, and most likely, your reviews will stay with the previous business address. You have to make sure that Google knows that you’re moving out to a new place by permanently closing down your business page on Google Maps. Afterwards, you’ll need to put a new entry in your Places dashboard and put your new address there.

Reviews are important as they give legitimate proof as to how your business is like – in fact, before I check a business, I look at their reviews first. Losing them because you changed address is like starting all over again. That’s why, it would be best if you put your business as it is – it’s name, exact address and phone number.

Can I offer something to my reviewers to get a review?

No, you can’t – their guidelines says so. Don’t make Google think you’re giving away items for biased reviews. If they do know and proved that you’re doing it, you’ll likely get penalized. Remember that you’re trying to appease to Google here, not get on their bad side.

How many reviews will it take for Google to notice it as spammy and filter it?

There’s no definite number but here’s the thing – Google would easily find it suspicious if your page suddenly had 10-20 reviews in just one day as opposed to having reviews on a steady manner. You really don’t have control over it unless you encourage your clients to put in a word or two on your page if they have something on their mind – you should actually do this.

What are your thoughts on Local Directories like Yext, Localeze and BrightLocal?

When optimising your site for Local SEO, you should try to get the most number of efficient strategies at your disposal and make them work. Services like Yext Powerlistings might be a bit costly but it’ll get the job done quickly which will give you more time to work on other things. Your NAP is one of the main aspects in Local SEO and spreading them via local directories is indeed one of the ideas you should set your sights on.

Will I get penalized for link building?

Yes, if Google determines that those links are too spammy or come from sites that are completely unrelated to your site niche. However, there are ways that you’ll get by with having links. One should be the most obvious – Guest Posting.

Yes, we’re going back to the classics. However, the main purpose of the having these posts isn’t to house it with a bunch of links but with good and unique content that people would want to spend time reading. Make a post relevant to your business and share it to everyone.

Guest posting isn’t easy – it’s tiring and it will cost you a lot if you want to hire a writer for it. But those posts will slowly build a better foundation compared to just creating links and shooting them all over the place. There are other ways to get links like citations and social links – you can also try to do them as well.

Satisfied with our Top Local SEO Questions? If you have some cool questions and answers there, comment here below and let us know!